by Michele Gillis
Staff Writer
Education helps you prepare for a career but there’s more when it comes to real estate: continuing that education is not only mandatory, but beneficial in helping you further your career and meet the demands of the ever-changing marketplace.
Florida Realtors, Northeast Florida Association of Realtors and the Department of Business and Professional Regulation recognize the need to help Realtors further their education to excel in this market.
“We definitely recommend the GRI Program as it is the premier designation in the Realtor world and the flagship designation of both National Association of Realtors and Florida Realtors,” said William Campbell, director of education for Florida Realtors. “Florida’s program has been ranked as one of the top three programs in the country in content, availability, and affordability, and we are constantly updating the curriculum to include industry changes and market trends.
“Furthermore, we have a continuing education program of over 80 specialty courses designed to meet the changing needs of our members. Local boards participate in the CE program and can offer any of these courses under our provider number to their members.”
Locally, the NEFAR has added courses to help the Realtors excel in this market.
“Existing courses have not been changed, but additions to the curriculum have been made regarding technology and short sales/foreclosures due to the demand for these courses,” said Joy Huber, director of education at NEFAR. “We licensed the Loss Mitigation Certification course from the Massachusetts Association of Realtors and revamped accordingly for the state of Florida.”
Huber said that along with the Loss Mitigation Certification, NEFAR presented the new NAR Short Sale Certification in October with 85 in attendance.
“These courses were added due to the huge demand for short sale/foreclosure classes,” said Huber. “With the help of NEFMLS several classes on smart phones and blackberries were presented along with classes dealing with the social networks. These courses were also presented due to the huge demand.”
NEFAR will debut the NEFAR Appraiser Institute this year.
“The appraiser members of NEFAR have begged for NEFAR to present appraiser classes for their continuing education,” she said. “We are proud to say that NEFAR will be offering classes for appraiser members to receive all their continuing education for free, the same as we offer the Realtors.”
Future changes to the education curriculum at NEFAR are expected.
“Short Sales/Foreclosure and technology classes along with first time home buyer courses and lease option/investment courses have been recommended,” said Huber.
DBPR issues licenses to broker, sales, associates, and other professional within the real estate industry. Not all real estate licensees are Realtors: the term “Realtor” refers to members of a local board of realtors who voluntarily join their local association.
As far as the DPBR, there have been no changes to the initial education to become a real estate agent. However, there have been changes to the requirements to become a broker.
“The only recent change to the requirements for a license took effect on July 1, 2008,” said Thomas O’Bryant Jr., director of DBPR’s Division of Real Estate. “At that time Section 475.17, Florida Statutes was amended to increase the requirements to become a real estate broker. Previously, applicants for a broker’s license had to demonstrate 12 months of current and valid status as a sales associate or broker in Florida or any other state, within the previous five years.
“The legislature increased that requirement from 12 to 24 months, in an effort to ensure that those individuals entrusted with a real estate broker’s license are sufficiently competent to provide quality service to customers and effectively supervise sales associates.”
There have been no recent changes to the examination for licensure for either sales associates or brokers.
O’Bryant had some recommendations for Realtors to stay on top of the ever-changing market.
“After their initial renewal, real estate licensees are required to take 14 hours of continuing education for each subsequent renewal period,” said O’Bryant. “While 14 hours is required, real estate licensees are also free to exceed the minimum number of hours. There are a number of voluntary organizations that many real estate licensees take part in as well as designations that can be obtained for professional development purposes.”
O’Bryant said the DPBR values community outreach and that staff members of the Division of Real Estate are encouraged to speak to organizations and licensees about topics relevant to the ever-changing real estate market.